DAIRY EDUCATION BOARD NEWSLETTER
WHAT IS BUGGING DAIRYMEN in 1999?
B.A.D. NEWS
BACTERIA, ANTIBIOTICS & DIOXINS
BACTERIA
February of 1999 has been filled with news stories confirming the worst
fears of the dairy industry. Reports of bacterial infections in milk
given to kids in the Dominican Republic caused 1,000 schoolchildren to
become ill. Fifty of those children were hospitalized. Contaminated
milk contained samples of 22 different bacteria. At the same time in
America, a nationwide milk recall was ordered for 270,000 cases of milk
products due to possible Listeria contamination. Kohler Mix Specialties
of Minnesota first recalled milk and dairy products from supermarket
shelves in eight Midwest states, then expanded the recall to include all
50 states.
Tests on unsealed cartons of skim milk revealed the presence of Listeria
monocytogenes. Symptoms of Listeria infection can occur up to 45 days
after ingesting a tainted product. Beware the Ides of March. The
Listeria bacteria can cause fatal infections in young children and the
elderly. Healthy people may suffer flu-like symptoms. Pasteurization
does not work. Every American knows this. Odoriferous milk from your
refrigerator is dumped on day ten, but eaten with cereal on day nine.
Do you wonder what you are drinking? Twenty-two different bacterium
were naturally cultured from pasteurized milk in the Dominican Republic.
ANTIBIOTICS
The USDA and FDA have recently revealed that Americans might be
ingesting too many antibiotics in meat. The official announcements did
not mention milk, yet cows and steers are treated with the same
antibiotics and the average American eats significantly more milk and
dairy products than meat.
ANTIBIOTICS IN MILK
After genetically engineering the bovine growth hormone, Monsanto
learned that cows were getting mastitis, painful ulcers on their udders
which resulted in an increase in pus, blood and bacteria in milk.
Monsanto arranged to have their top scientist, Margaret Miller, hired by
FDA where she reviewed her own research. Aware that dairymen would have
to treat cows with more antibiotics, Miller simply raised the allowable
levels of antimicrobials farmers could put in milk.
FDA CHANGED THE STANDARD!
Miller arbitrarily increased the allowable level by one hundred times --
from one part per hundred million to one part per million!
On March 16, 1994, a letter signed "concerned CVM employees" was
circulated to members of Congress, GAO, Dr. David Kessler (Commissioner
of FDA), the Inspector General of the United States Richard P. Kusserow,
and Michael Hansen of Consumer's Union. The letter in part reads:
"Dr. Miller (wrote) a policy on use of antimicrobials in milk. She
picked an arbitrary and scientifically unsupported number of 1 part-per-
million as being the allowable amount of antimicrobial in milk permitted
without any consumer safety testing. This is for any antimicrobial. A
cow could be treated with several antibiotics and each one would be
permitted to be in milk at a level of 1ppm without additional consumer
safety testing. Effects of the different antibiotics could be additive
and this is not taken into account."
Michael Hansen of Consumers Reports testified and brought attention to
Congressional committees that 52 drugs are known to be used as
antibiotics to treat mastitis. According to Consumer's Union, FDA had
approved only 30 of those antibiotics. Milk is routinely tested for the
presence of six different antibiotics. Farmers are aware of the
antibiotics being tested. Do you imagine they might be tempted to use
any of the other 46 not currently being tested?
HERE WE GO AGAIN!
When something doesn't work for the dairy industry the FDA often helps
private industry by changing the standard. This does not make the
product any safer but it does allow the FDA to officially state that the
drug residue is "well within safe levels." This is usually done at the
expense of the consumer.
Margaret Miller's name recently "popped up into the news" again. It
seems that FDA recently approved a powerful liquid antibiotic for
lactating dairy cows. It is called:
LIQUAMYOCIN 200
Before approval, FDA allowed residues of 30 parts per billion of this
antibiotic to show up in milk samples. Unfortunately, milk samples
tested out at 300 parts per billion. What did FDA do? They changed the
standard! The new standard is now 300 parts per billion!
There is evidence of both comedy and tragedy...The Dannon Yogurt Company
cannot use this milk because the antibiotic kills the acidophilus which
they add to their cultured product. Not so cultured, huh? FDA approved
this product, and whose name do you think they have as contact for more
information? None other than Margaret Miller, Ph.D. Her phone number
is 301-827-5282. Let Dr. Miller know how happy you are about arbitrary
changes in antibiotic protocols. Give her number to your congressman and
demand an investigation.
DIOXINS - WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SHOCKER
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently conducted an assessment of
the health risks of dioxins in Geneva, Switzerland. Peter Montague, who
writes RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENTAL NEWSLETTER, obtained copies of the
unofficial report. Hundreds of past issues of this brilliantly written
newsletter can be found at:
http://www.enviroweb.org/pubs/rachel/contents.htm
The most recent issue of Rachel's (issue #636) referenced DIOXINS and
revealed:
"Eighty to ninety percent of our daily dioxin intake comes from eating
milk, meat and fish. Breast-fed infants take in 70 picograms of dioxin
per kilogram of body weight per day - seven to seventy times as much as
the average adult. Despite this, breast-fed infants are healthier than
infants fed bottled formula."
Forum 583 TIP OF THE ICEBERG http://www.notmilk.com/forum/583.html
Forum 601 MILKING THE PUBLIC http://www.notmilk.com/forum/601.html
Robert Cohen
Executive Director
Dairy Education Board
201-871-5871
http://www.notmilk.com
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